केन्द्र ने 147A धारा को असंवैधानिक घोषित हाईकोर्ट फैसले को सुप्रीम कोर्ट में चुनौती दी

Centre moves SC against Punjab and Haryana HC verdict striking down Section 147A Income Tax Act

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently struck down the provision, saying Parliament cannot retrospectively declare a defective procedure valid without curing the defect

The Centre on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court against the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s verdict striking down Section 147A of the Income Tax Act as unconstitutional.

“We have filed an SLP against the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment. We want it to be listed on Friday, because it has created a huge vacuum in law,” Additional Solicitor General N. Venkataraman mentioned the Centre’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant which agreed to list it urgently.

“One batch of tax matters, 99.9% of the assessee community is following the law, both prior and post...this has created a huge hiatus,” Venkataraman submitted.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently struck down the provision, saying Parliament cannot retrospectively declare a defective procedure valid without curing the defect. It held that reassessment proceedings begun by Jurisdictional Assessing Officers in breach of the faceless procedure were invalid, and quashed the resulting orders and notices issued by the IT Department.

Related news: Punjab and Haryana High Court strikes down Section 147A of Income Tax Act as unconstitutional

It held that the Legislature cannot simply declare, retrospectively, that a particular legal position was always valid when constitutional courts had already found the relevant procedure legally defective. The amendment impermissibly sought to circumvent the findings of constitutional courts, it noted

Section 147A was inserted retrospectively in the Income Tax Act with effect from April 1, 2021, to clarify that reassessment notices could be issued not only through the faceless centre but also by a Jurisdictional Assessing Officer. It clarified that the expression “Assessing Officer” in Sections 148 and 148A referred to an Assessing Officer other than the National Faceless Assessment Centre. It sought to establish that jurisdictional officers could conduct these reassessment proceedings.

The faceless assessment regime was introduced in 2021. The moot question is whether a Jurisdictional Assessing Officer could independently issue reassessment notices or whether those functions had to be routed through the faceless system operated by the National Faceless Assessment Centre.

While deciding nearly 700 petitions, the Punjab and Haryana High Court also set aside the Section 148 notices issued to the petitioners by their jurisdictional Assessing Officers, holding that such notices were required to be issued through randomised automated allocation and in a faceless manner under Section 151A of the Act read with the scheme dated March 29, 2022.

However, some other High Courts have ruled otherwise.

Now, the Supreme Court is expected to give an authoritative finding to resolve the dispute over the jurisdiction of the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) & the Faceless Assessing Officer/National Faceless Assessment Centre (NFAC).

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